THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
Technology for customer experience DIGITAL REPORT 2021
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
TECHNOLOGY ENABLING SUCCESS
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THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
Gunjan Verma, Chief Technology Officer of The Travel Corporation, discusses the role of tech nology in transformation and combatting COVID-19
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ast year, The Travel Corporation (TTC) celebrated its hundredth anniversary. The globe-spanning organisation incorporates around 40 brands as part of the TTC family, as well as a number of Hotels. “Each of those brands is known in their categories to provide exceptional customer service and travel experiences at their core,” says Gunjan Verma, Chief Technology Officer of The Travel Corporation, and previously of one of those brands, Contiki. “We’re passionate about making travel experiences personal, with a huge focus on sustainability. Whatever we do is with the aim of making travel matter.” A large part of enabling that vision comes from technology. On the data front, the company is midway through a journey to maximise its data utilisation. “There are two key initiatives to further leverage our data underway,” says Verma. “We have made a significant investment in building a multi-system, multi-source data ecosystem. Over the next two to three years will see us taking data from Salesforce, from our reservation system, from our website, all coming into an AWS scalable platform for us to then start using that data to assist decision-making.” ttc.com
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Gunjan Verma discusses how The Travel Corporation is making travel easier
“WE FEEL THAT AS A TRAVEL OPERATOR WE ALSO HAVE TO PLAY OUR PART IN MAKING SURE THAT PEOPLE ARE LOOKED AFTER AND TAKEN CARE OF”
AI is another emerging The customer area into which Verma experience is at the core is looking to improve of the travel experience performance across the TTC offers. “We have company, including the a platform called My sorting of business leads. Travel Portal,” says “We use some rules Verma. “We use it to right now to prioritize build excitement even some leads over others. before a vacation has We are now looking at begun. What are you how to use AI to say going to see? What this lead is better than are you going to eat GUNJAN VERMA the other in order to including any dietary CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, THE TRAVEL CORPORATION take that to the next requirements? What are level. Of course we the local experiences also employ AI in the customer experience that will be available to you? It also allows space on the digital front. When a customer our customers to express their travel comes to our website, their experience is passions. For example, you may say you’re personalised. The first time they might see actually very interested in architecture, while some inspirational imagery, but the next your partner may say they're very interested time we can detect that you have come in food and wine. We capture all of that before and, based on some rules, alter your detail.” Beyond that, it also has simplifying web experience.”. functions such as taking the ttc.com
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THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
“ WE’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT MAKING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES PERSONAL” GUNJAN VERMA
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
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THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
GUNJAN VERMA TITLE: CTO COMPANY: THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
EXECUTIVE BIO
INDUSTRY: LEISURE, TRAVEL & TOURISM Gunjan Verma is the Chief Technology Officer for The Travel Corporation (TTC.com), the world leader in travel. With a strong background in consumer internet, Gunjan brings with him a wealth of experience, driving technology, innovation & the digital agenda across TTC's global business. Prior to joining TTC, Gunjan was at Groupon, as Managing Director of Operations in Australia and New Zealand, overseeing functions including customer operations, merchant operations, supply chain and key strategic/technology projects. He has also worked in various senior transformation, operations and technology roles within Accenture, Coca-Cola and Linde Group. Gunjan received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering, India and a Graduate Diploma in Management from the University of New South Wales, Australia. He loves travel (obviously!), reading, and following cricket, which he played at university.
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TOGETHER TRAVEL COMPANIES
Delight your customers, increase loyalty, and drive competitive advantage. Salesforce enables you to harness your data to get a 360 view of your customer to deliver inspiring, seamless experiences. Learn more at salesforce.com/uk. We bring companies and customers together.
Salesforce and TTC: Transforming the customer experience
Michael Green, Senior Vice President - Travel, Transport & Hospitality at Salesforce on leveraging technology to meet the evolving expectations of today’s consumers The Travel Corporation (TTC) has been a Salesforce customer since 2014. “TTC has been leveraging Salesforce technology to consolidate processes and systems to help accelerate sales cycles, ensure consistent communication across marketing and deliver seamless customer service,” says Michael Green, Senior Vice-President, Head of Retail & TTH (Travel, Transport & Hospitality) in the UK & Ireland. “Salesforce solutions have been helping TTC go to market through their indirect model - via travel agencies and resellers.” In recent times, TTC has evolved their business model from a B2B (business to business) to a B2C (business to consumer) facing organisation. “TTC had a clear vision, they wanted to get closer to their customers, and they came to Salesorce to understand how to achieve this. The travel industry has faced enormous challenges of late, and the need to find different ways to serve customers and build resilience into entire business models has accelerated many brand’s digital transformation journey. TTC were already on that path with a clear end goal in sight. “Part of the work we’ve been involved in, is harnessing TTC’s vast amount of data, which has been accrued over the brand’s one-hundred year lifespan. We have been able to unify that data to provide a single source of truth.
“We know customers are demanding more from their online experiences, they crave more personalised, high-value and easy to use services. By leveraging Salesforce technology TTC is able to deliver personalised experiences at scale. When a customer chooses to interact with the brand, they want to be known and understood.” After seven years of working together, Salesforce is laser focussed on continuing to be a trusted digital advisor to TTC. “It’s not just about supporting them as they run their business but helping them change their business,” says Green. “At Salesforce, trust is our number one value, and it is a key component to the success of any digital transformation project. This is built through being honest, demonstrating proven credibility and drawing on a vast array of expertise to inform decision making.”
THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
How We Tread Right
“ WE DON’T JUST SAY AN IMAGE ON OUR WEBSITE LOOKS MORE INSPIRATIONAL THAN ANOTHER WE LET DATA TELL US” GUNJAN VERMA
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
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stress out of juggling travel documents by storing all relevant data for hotel check-ins or flight boarding. Verma points out that just as important as the new technology is the culture supporting it, however, with a new emphasis on supporting decisions with data. “18 months ago, we embarked on an AB testing framework with everything we do. Now, we don’t just say an image on our website looks more inspirational than another - we let data tell us. We’re shifting the culture from inspiration to inspiration and data, instituting a culture of testing, learning and continuous improvement.” Alongside that is an emphasis on trusting teams to manage themselves. Verma sees this as not just a trend but a permanent evolution. “It is actually well established now that self
THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
managing teams perform better. Answering questions like: ‘What's the The question is how do you keep best way to unlock our data? What's business objectives in mind, give the best way to market our first-party them to your respective teams and data? What do we do with thirdThe Travel let them get on with it, promoting party data?’ All the issues that have Corporation was that culture of autonomy with a come up around adopting a multifirst founded in 1920. few guide rails.” channel strategy, they’ve helped Supporting TTC on its journey to answer.” have been a few key partners, among them The travel industry has been particularly Salesforce. “They’ve assisted as we’ve hard-hit by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, transformed our business from being a legacy leading TTC to adopt a number of proactive tour operator, to a omnichannel organisation. measures to ensure staff, customers and Salesforce of course has brought not just the partners all feel safe. “That is the single technology such as Einstein, but the thinking most important thing we have to do,” says which comes with being a digital-first business.” Verma. “Of course we have a very robust One of the areas Salesforce has particularly hygiene and wellbeing protocol in place for focused upon is data. “The professional future travel. Governments will play their services arm of Salesforce has been moving part with vaccination, but we feel that as a things forwards with our approach to data. travel operator we also have to play our part
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in making sure that people are looked after and taken care of.” One such example of that focus is the institution of wellbeing directors to ensure social distancing at hotels and restaurants, akin to existing travel directors. As Verma explains, responding to the pandemic has allowed the company to learn a few lessons. “We’ve learnt that we can move fast if the organisation is focused on a single objective, and proved that legacy businesses can also be agile when it comes to it. The ways we were able to pivot and the nimbleness we were able to build into our operating model means that it’s served to accelerate existing efforts.”
“WE’VE LEARNT THAT WE CAN MOVE FAST IF THE ORGANISATION IS FOCUSED ON A SINGLE OBJECTIVE” GUNJAN VERMA
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, THE TRAVEL CORPORATION
Going forwards, Verma sees his department as continuing to fulfill the measures upon which it judges itself, namely improving customer experience, providing productivity improvements, focusing on security and compliance, increasing distribution and building a culture of continuous improvement. “TTC’s technology department will continue using technology and digitalenabled tools and processes to make our brands more successful in their respective, competitive marketplaces.”
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The Travel Corporation 15 Grosvenor Place Belgravia London United Kingdom SW1X 7HH
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